Aircraft fuselages are designed to resist loads induced by pressurisation and loads transmitted by the engines.
This is why fuselages usually comprise circumferential frames, also called <<orbital frames>>, and an aerodynamic skin sometimes called a <<self-stiffened skin>>, fixed to these circumferential frames and provided with stiffeners usually along the longitudinal direction, that are fixed on an inside face of the skin and are usually called <<stringers>>.
The stringers may have different types of sections, for example T, I, J or Ω. In some known configurations, the circumferential frames have a sole plate fixed directly onto the inside face of the self-stiffened skin, in which case the frames comprise notches through which stringers are routed. In other known configurations, the stringers are inserted between the circumferential frames and the self-stiffened skin, and then are routed above the stringers.
In both cases, and particularly in the latter case, angles usually called <<clips>> are placed between the stringers to connect the circumferential frames to the skin and/or the longitudinal stiffeners.
Nevertheless, the clips are put into place on the frame and are fixed one by one. This individual treatment of each clip makes the assembly method expensive, particularly because there are very many clips associated with each fuselage frame. Moreover, this fuselage fabrication phase usually requires the presence of several operators inside the fuselage segment concerned due to the large number of attachment clips. Consequently, it can be difficult to perform other assembly tasks inside the segment at the same time when operators are putting these clips into place and fixing them, which is another factor tending to increase fabrication costs and times.
Therefore there is a need to optimise this clip placement and attachment phase to limit its impact on the global fuselage manufacturing cost.